The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · ¶63

Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate, that those troubles had been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited obedience.

Edward Gibbon · Project Gutenberg #732 (Milman edition) — public domain
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.